Business Development

News

The challenges and opportunities of Brazil
21/05/2018

The challenges and opportunities of Brazil
21/05/2018

It's been a few years since Brazil occupied the front pages of the international media with rockets departing from the famous Christ The Redemeer representing the economic boom of 2010 and its record growth of 7.5%.
It is true that the world macroeconomic situation was profoundly different from today but, after a few years, Brazil has found itself in a deep crisis, the heaviest of the last 50 years, which has dragged the country into a deep recession culminating in the two year period 2015 and 2016 with a GDP fall of 3.5%. New covers this time with the same rockets but in free fall.
However, during this political and economic blackout, the country was in fact governed by the Minister of Finance and the President of the Central Bank. We find ourselves today with a political situation in the process of being defined but which does not worry much in view of the upcoming elections in October, whatever the outcome.
The "Lava Jato" operation (so-called "Car Wash" operation) has in fact re-established, albeit in a traumatic way, the rules in the business world and transparency and compliance criteria that had been lost over time with high corruption and impunity.
The scenario today is again very favorable and also very different compared to 2010. Development and growth trends that make it, given its size, a macro region with incredible potential for Italian companies looking abroad to grow.
2017 ended with a GDP increase of 1% and further growth is expected between 2.5% and 3% for the next two years. Beyond the data on GDP, the challenges facing the country are focused on large interventions to be implemented to support growth and development.
President Temer, who took over from Dilma Rousseff in mid-2016, was a good political articulator and was able to approve the reform of labor law, leaving a challenging and crucial social security restructuring to be carried out. Without this last reform it will not be possible to correct public accounts, a necessity that meets consensus from many sides but difficult to implement today. The life time of a Brazilian has passed, in the last 20 years, from 67 years (1994) to 75 years (2015), and this is a clear positive news. However, over the next 10-15 years this will have further implications for the labor market, health insurance and health system costs.
Brazil, which I know in light of my 15 years of professional experience on site, is a cyclical country where it is not usually advisable to invest opportunistically. Often I am forced to give "cold showers" to potential investors: I advocate a medium-term horizon in which the possibility of collecting good fruit is much higher.
In 2010 we saw China buying commodities by overheating the economy; today it is the first investor in Brazil on an industrial fabric that for decades has stagnated in terms of productivity. Who invests today, thanks to the very favorable exchange rate, invests well and has the chance to be competitive in an inefficient market that consumes a lot. In all those sectors where the state is slow, the private sector finds space. It is not only Asian companies that invest, but many opportunities are seizing American and European companies. Large plans have been launched to support industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT) world is driving the health and hospital management, urban mobility, agribusiness and industrial automation sectors.
A genuine revolution is taking place in the Fintech sector. At the end of April, the legislation changed to introduce Peer 2 Peer (P2P) loans, allowing Fintech companies to grant credit without going through banks. If we add that the official interest rate has passed, in less than two years, from 14% to the current historical minimum of 6.5% (real rates are higher) and we observe that in Brazil there are more than 40 million people with limited or no access to the banking system, it is easy to understand why this market has enormous potential for growth and an estimated value of around 24 billion dollars over the next 10 years.
Also in the renewable energy market it is impressive to see the growth that is being generated in a country that already has the most "renewable" energy matrix of the industrialized world.
There are several examples of Italian companies that have continued to invest in Brazil with a medium to long-term interpretation. Among the most significant investments, it is worth mentioning those of the Gavio Group that began in 2016 with 2.25 billion of Reais, investing about 770 million reais in 2017 and an additional 3.5 billion of Reais in the early months of 2018 (a part deferred ), all destined for motorway concessions. Today they are the second player in Brazil by number of concessions.
Enel in the energy sector has already invested in Brazil buying the CELG (Goias) and the hydroelectric plant or rather the thirty-year concession located on the Rio Grande (Minas and SP) investing 9 billion of Reais only in 2017 and 5 billion of Reais in 2016. In 2018 it is in the running for the acquisition of Eletropaulo valued 7 billion of Reias and together with Enel Green Power, which already owns here wind, photovoltaic and hydroelectric, has a 2018-2021 plan of several billion euros of investment.
The Azimut group (finance) also recorded various acquisitions that led the Brazilian operation to a total of assets under administration exceeding 15 billion Reais (today it represents the second foreign market for the Group).
In short, Brazil certainly has great challenges ahead of its own but undoubted opportunities for both large companies and, not to be underestimated, for small and medium-sized Italian companies.

GM Venture buys out a strategic stake in Premium
11/05/2018

GM Venture buys out a strategic stake in Premium
11/05/2018

GM Venture buys out a strategic stake in Premium, the historical partner specialized in the outsourcing of accounting, tax and HR services for foreign companies in Brazil.
The acquisition marks an important milestone for the business and is consistent with GM Venture long-term strategy of integrating value-added services for its client base, allowing the reformulation of administrative processes in a more efficient manner.
"We will continue to work with the other two historical accounting partners to maintain a diversified portfolio of partnerships as we have customers of all sizes and nationalities, but the acquisition of a stake in Premium will give us the possibility of a more effective and optimized transfer of know-how to guarantee (something that is already happening) the rapid processing of financial statements and reports directly in Italian through a more integrated interface with GM Venture processes ". Graziano Messana - Managing Partner GM Venture.
"We have been working with GM Venture for over 10 years and this operation represents a further strengthening of our partnership and our offer since we have specialized in all different kind of foreign companies but we have developed over the years, on GM Venture behalf, dedicated and unique services to Italian companies with branches present in Brazil ". José Freire de Brito - Founding Partner Premium Ltda.
About Premium:
Premium Website

Business Community - Messana (GM Venture): in Brazil great opportunities for SMEs
09/05/2018

Business Community - Messana (GM Venture): in Brazil great opportunities for SMEs
09/05/2018

The country is interesting both for exports and for the opening of new companies or branches. Many promising sectors and in many states can rely on the support of dedicated government structures.
Italian companies, and in particular SMEs, can find a very interesting market in Brazil both for what concerns exports as well as for assistance/support in opening new branches, especially considering that the "Made in Italy" has a very strong value in the country. We talked about it with Graziano Messana, founder of GM Venture, Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo and a lecturer at the Luiss Business School.

Brazil is very broad and with deep differences among its states: why can it represent a new business frontier?

We are talking about a country of continental dimensions that can be compared to the size of Europe or the United States. The state of São Paulo is very developed and produces 32% of Brazil's GDP.
It is a state where technology has a very rapid reaction and is reflected in the lives of consumers. I mention some examples. The digital receipt linked to a virtual basket of consumers (consumed by indicating the tax code and then receive part of the tax credits through bank credits) has now been in place for several years, encouraging the request for a receipt.
On the transportion level, it's imporant to highlight the case of Uber that in the last 6 months has traveled more than 500 million people while Cabifly, one of Uber's competitors, allows to travel by helicopter. We are talking about a state that catalyses 20% of investments in all of South America.
Then there are the northern states of Brazil that are less developed but present good opportunities in the tourism sector, renewable energy and infrastructures.
Historically, in the south of Brazil, various factories have been created and thrived, distributed between the states of Santa Catarina, Paranà, Rio Grande do Sul. The proximity to the hydroelectric plants (responsible for the creation of 75% of the energy) has favored this industrial settlement and I take this opportunity to remember that Brazil has the most "renewable" energy matrix of the industrialized world. The south, especially the state of Rio Grande do Sul, concentrates the majority of wineries in Brazil (1,100 in total) and this is a growing sector, where the per capita consumption is still very low.

What are the opportunities for Italian SMEs?

The opportunities for Italian companies are various. Home automation and digital security solutions are very popular for both residential and commercial applications. The renewable energy sector, and the supplies that revolve around this industry, is growing at double digit rates, somewhat reminiscent of the boom that took place in Europe many years ago.
But even traditional sectors like furniture or fashion are worthy of mention.
Certainly, Italian companies have a big distinguishing element and appeal for Brazilian customers who buy Italian design even at prohibitive cost (in the last 10 years imports from Italy have doubled), while for fashion the appeal is not necessarily determined by luxury. Testment of this is the recent expansion, also occurred during a period of crisis (that we can say has been left behind) of the Intimissimi group.

What are the fiscal and legislative issues that Italian companies can face?

If you start a business from scratch, the procedures for setting up a Brazilian company are not too complex and are very similar to those of an Italian company. The state of São Paulo offers more rapidity according to our experience, and anyways, after the start-up phase, the possibility of opening other branches in other stases still holds. It is important to protect and register brands/patents at the National Institute of Intellectual Property, because the phenomenon of imitations and piracy is still widespread. Regarding the authorizations and fiscal incentives matters, there is a very efficient government arm of São Paulo (SPInveste) which offers a lot of support, especially when a company wants to evaluate a local production project.
At the legislative level, therefore, I do not see much criticality if we talk about a greenfield project (starting from scratch) assuming that Italian companies take proper and informed decisions before formulating the investment and do not discover bottlenecks along the way. More attention instead needs to be paid to acquisitions of existing companies or joint ventures, because we have had several cases in which we had to take remedial action, as foreign partners were not sufficiently guaranteed.
To summarize, I would say that in this last case (acquisitions or joint ventures) the greatest risks regard fiscal or labor liabilities not "intercepted" by the due diligence or deriving from the previous, informal management. In the case of startup projects it is easier to study the tax structure in the analysis / preliminary phase and to start already with the right design. It is advisable to simulate a hypothetical P&L (profit/loss plan) for the first year and also choose the appropriate tax regime (in Brazil you have two options) because you can exercise the option on the choice of regime only once during the year.

For an Italian SME it is better to export or set up business in Brazil?

We have followed more than 50 cases since 2006 that span several sectors. The answer depends a lot on the peculiarity of the product.
However, the strategy to export and be competitive in Brazil is to use a contained FOB (free on board) price, respect the transfer price rules and sell to its Brazilian branch with direct importation, by-passing intermediaries and shortening the chain as much as possible, with the idea of generating profits and distributing the result to the parent company that will be 95% exempt in Italy.
Quite often, the misunderstanding is due to misinformation that leads to the belief that import duties in Brazil double the cost of products. The duties themselves are there and range from 1% to 35%, in some cases we have even obtained a total exemption, but all the other taxes that affect an import can be recovered with a mechanism similar to that of Italian VAT if a branch is opened/present in Brazil.
In some cases, for example, we imported a semi-finished product and finished production here. In industrial segments this is often advisable because we import technology and noble parts from Italy and buy materials such as carpentry or low quality here on site.

Which sectors are expected to grow more in Brazil in the coming years?

As previously mentioned, renewables are growing strongly, the important presence of Enel Green Power is admirable, and in the solar sector only investments of 28 billion euros are expected over the next 15 years.
An important trend concerns the Internet of Things (IoT) which draws a transversal growth in the sectors of hardware and software, industrial automation, agribusiness, health and hospital management, urban mobility.
The beauty and cosmetics sector is worth 33 billion euros (4th market in the world after China, Japan and the USA) and is a market favored by the culture of beauty, the aging population and the increase in purchasing power of lower social classes.
The education sector continues to offer good prospects and, for example, initiatives around the "distance learning" proliferate, also considering that Brazil suffered a very deep crisis in 2015/2016 and came out of this crisis only at the end of 2017 recording a 1% GDP growth (in 2016 it was -3.5%). This has led to a lot of unemployment and therefore requalifications and new training methods present, in our opinion, opportunities to be explored.
In any case, the country's growth prospects for 2018-2019 are at around 3% a year, so expectations are good, beyond the uncertainty surrounding the October elections. The first quarter has already shown several new initiatives by small and medium-sized Italian companies that have returned to invest.
Full article:
in Brasile grandi opportunità per le PMI

What our clients say about us

Testimonies from top managers who work with GM Venture

“We are pleased to say that our Brazilian startup, token place in 2011, was extremely successful. We put together a winning team and chose an essential partner such as GM Venture to support us to start quickly our activities in Brazil, goods importation, general and cash management as well as business development activities. “

Kirstie Carey

“In order to realize these strategies, local partners have always supported Redecam. Actually, in Brazil, we have cooperated with Graziano Messana who represents the perfect balance between the Italian nature and attitudes and his knowledge of the Country, its networks and potential. Graziano Messana has actively participated the project’s start up and has assisted us to deal with the difficulties related to the Brazilian requirements. This important contribution has allowed us to focus on our business and resources in order to implement technology and services to our clients.”

Giuseppe Bettoni

“Neomobile is the market leader in Italy, Brazil, Spain, France, Mexico and Turkey, working on the field of mobile payment in more than 70 countries offering its partners the ability to distribute and monetize digital content and services through the mobile. ‘’From this point of view, we are very pleased with our Brazilian start up, which took place in 2008. We have managed to put together a winning team and grow rapidly. From the early phase of the project, it was essential to have a partner like GM Venture giving us support and continuing to assist us with the upmost efficiency in business development processes’’.

Gianluca D’Agostino

““Brazil offers extraordinary business possibilities for Italia Independent products. The nomination of Graziano Messana together with the support of GM Venture represents an important step in the creation of a solid and prepared team. This choice is due to his long and mature local experience in assisting Italian companies arriving in Brazil, to his professionalism and, lastly, due to his easy cultural and linguistic transit that allow us to accelerate our strategic decisions”.

Andrea Tessitore

“We had an expansion process in Brazil with several acquisitions. We found GM Venture to be a trustworthy partner, able to act effectively in the delivery of complex projects that the team was involved”.

Giuseppe Perrucci

“We have known GM Genture for almost 10 years now, during this period Sparco has used its professionalism and capacity to face corporate reorganization processes and management of our Brazilian branche, a business insert in a degree of complexity with the issue of importation and production of goods with the Sparco brand”.

Claudio Pastoris

“We have known Mr. Graziano Messana and GM Venture’s innovative business model since 2010. Fiera Milano has acquired a majority share of a known Brazilian company from the exhibition sector and we have charged GM Venture and Mr. Messana initially as advisor, then as interim CFO and at last as General Manager. I have to say that all top management of Fiera Milano is very satisfied. We are traded in the stock exchange in the STAR segment. The dedication to the assigned projects, the respect to the financial deadlines e and the ability to negotiate in difficult situations articulating with Brazilian partners are some of the strong points that I can testimony in these years of intense work in Brazil, a country that we want to continue investing”.

Francesco Santa

“GM Venture understands the complexity of the legal, financial and fiscal dynamics of Brazil. In addition, they have a qualified network, certainly something to be considered an asset for companies that, like Eataly, have decided to invest in Brazil”.

Massimiliano Moi

A professional team with an ethical conduct. We have started our green field project with them and got along very well. We have understood rapidly in an initial phase, as delicate as can be a start up in Brazil, which were the opportunities and threats that a complex country like this could offer us”. Success case of opening of a gelato chain in Brazil with more than 70 sales points. Currently, the company is preparing its expansion to the USA.”

Edoardo Tonolli

Some of Our Customers

Azimut

Fiera Milano

Eataly

Brunello Cucinelli

Liberty

Italia Independent

Sparco

Neo Mobile

Other Clients

Our founder

Graziano Messana

Italian, economist, strong experience with start-up companies, business management and reorganization, and M&A processes. In 2006, he established GM Venture with the goal to support foreign companies entering the country, creating a unique and innovative business platform. Currently, he is part of the board of several companies in Brazil.

FOLLOW US

How to reach us

Angelica Avenue is located approximately 30 minutes from Congonhas National Airport and about 45 minutes from Guarulhos International Airport. Our headquarters is close to two financial centers, the Avenida Paulista and Avenida Faria Lima. indoor parking with Valet Parking service.To use our rooftop heliport: 23º33’14”S / 046º39’46”W